20 Tips on MIUI 11 Tricks Hidden in All Xiaomi Phones

Dyah Pitaloka

Xiaomi has launched another iteration of their Android custom ROM, MIUI 10. And they added some cool and interesting new features. There is an AI feature that allows you to open applications in almost zero. And with the help of other AI features you can take like DSLR photos even with Non Dual camera phones. Apart from these features, there are new Gestures and some special features that you will like.

In this post, we will show you all the best new MIUI 10 features and also some major improvements from the previous version, MIUI 9. So, let's start.

13 Best Hidden Features of Xiaomi MIUI 10 What You Need to Know

1. Current Application Screen (Recent App)

The latest application screens have undergone a major change in MIUI 10. The display is far more different than what you see on MIUI 9 and other versions.

The latest applications are arranged side by side in the form of cards, which can be scrolled vertically to see more applications. With settings like this Xiaomi can use a lot of space on the screen and you can see up to 6 of the latest applications at the same time on your screen.

You also see the latest application with Gesture Movement similar to iOS. You just need to Swipe up and Hold to see the latest applications.

And if a long tap on the latest application, you can see 3 buttons, which enable split / split screen, view application info and lock each application (preventing the app from being closed when you delete the latest application). As usual, there is a clear button at the bottom that will close all the latest applications and free RAM.

2. Gesture / Cool Cues New ways to navigate

Gesture is a major addition to MIUI 10. There are many new movements, which make navigation simpler. Most of these movements are very similar on iOS, but still it makes your life simpler. Even though all Xiaomi phones have Physical navigation buttons, you might not need them, if you are familiar with these Gestures.

Here are 4 ways to use gesture movements in MIUI 10:

Swipe up to go to Home: When you use the application, you can simply swipe-up from the bottom to open the Home screen.

Swipe up & Hold for the Latest application: If you Swipe up from the bottom and Hold, you can see the latest Application screen.

Swipe Left or Right to Back: Yes, you can turn the back button off. Simply Swipe from the Left or Right side of the screen to return to the previous screen. It only feels natural and comfortable in this way.

Swipe from Left or Right & Hold: When you are in the Application, if Swipe (from left or right) and Hold, you can immediately switch to another application in your latest application. You can also see the Application icon that you switch to.

Surprisingly, Xiaomi has adopted UI features from Stock Android P in several areas such as Notification and Volume Slider shade. As we discussed above, there is a new application screen recently with a Side-by-Side design.

Android P like Notification Shade
Shadows Notification / notification shades are more rounded and very similar on Android P. Area Quick turn off separated with white background and rounded corners. Notifications also have rounded corners.

Also, there is a New Brightness Bar in the notification shadow, not a Slider to adjust Brightness.

Volume slider

The volume adjustment is too customizable from Android P. This is a vertical bar instead of a horizontal slider.

In addition to the volume indicator, there is a Silent button and other buttons, which allow you to adjust other system volumes and DND modes, also you can set the timer for Silent & DND mode.

4. AI Portraits: Bokeh Effect even with a Single Camera

Phones with Dual-cameras usually offer a special mode called Portrait mode. What portrait / bokeh mode does is blur the background and give a bokeh (blurred background) effect similar to a DSLR camera.

But here a double-camera is needed, one to capture the photo of the person and the second to separate the background from the foreground. However, with MIUI 10 AI Portrait mode, you can take photos with bokeh effects even with a single camera.

How do AI portraits work on MIUI 10?

AI Portrait, which uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze millions of photos to get a better understanding, what background and what doesn't. So then use this data to identify the background and not focus on it (add blur).

Xiaomi AI portrait works with the front and rear cameras.

5. AI Preload: Faster Application Loading

Another AI feature from MIUI 10 is AI Preload. AI Preload uses machine learning to learn about your application usage patterns. It learns which applications you use regularly and which applications you rarely use. So you can predict which applications you might open next.

So, this includes the application that you will open, before. When you open the application, there is no need to load it.

This significantly reduces application load time and sometimes it is also possible to launch applications in almost zero.

6. XiaoAI: AI Xiaomi Based Voice Assistant

Xiaomi adds its own virtual assistant in MIUI 9. Now in MIUI 10, this is supported by Artificial intelligence, which makes it stronger. Xiaomi calls their new AI voice assistant as XiaoAI. Just like most voice assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, this can do many standard Smart assistant tasks easily.

The sad thing is that XiaoAI is only designed for the Chinese market, which means it only supports Chinese and Chinese products like WeChat as they are now. However, if you are interested in trying XiaoAI, you need to install MIUI 10 Chinese beta ROMs, not Global Beta.

13 Best Features of Xiaomi MIUI 10 What You Need to Know

7. Car Mode / Driving Mode on MIUI 10

Car Mode / car mode is an Experimental feature that lets you operate your Hands-free phone and avoid interference while driving. And as you would expect, it is Voice's assistant, XiaoAI who takes your orders and takes action. Which means it might only be available in Mandarin.

With driving mode, you can do some standard things that you might do when driving like Navigation on Maps, playing Music, etc.

As we said, the driving mode on MIUI 10 is an experimental feature. So if you want to try it, you can activate it in the MIUI lab application. (MIUI lab is an application where you activate and use experimental features that are still under development).

8. Support for Mi Home devices

At MIUI 9, there is a Mi Home manager who only controls Mi-branded smart home devices like the Mi Air Purifier. But in the new MIUI 10, Xiaomi added support for various brands of smart home devices.

Xiaomi said that the new Smart Home manager supports 590 different smart home brands. Which means you can control all your smart home devices from one place instead of installing separate applications for each different brand device.

9. System Wide Picture in Picture (PIP) Features

Picture in Picture mode is that you can view Videos or Maps or other applications in a Small floating window while using other applications at the same time. (Remember, we are not talking about separate screens).

There are already pictures in picture mode in Mi Browser for a long time in MIUI 8 and MIUI 9. But you can only use them for videos that are played through Mi Browser. It doesn't work with other applications. Then Google added PIP to Android Oreo 8.0. But it was not added to the newer MIUI 9 version.

Finally, now at MIUI 10, you can use full PIP mode with other applications too. Now you can still see Maps when sending messages on WhatsApp or watching videos while still checking your email.

11. Automatic charging support (Auto-fill)

Another Android Oreo feature that has been introduced in MIUI 10 is the Auto fill feature.

Automatic auto-fill / filling is a feature that allows you to automatically fill in the User name and password that you have saved for signing. Auto-fill works by default using Google's auto-fill data that you have saved in the Chrome browser. But you can use other password managers such as Lastpass, Dashlane, 1Pass, etc.,

Previously, this password manager used solutions such as Creating their own keyboard application to enter passwords. But with autofill on the entire system, you can now enter your username & password easily.

12) Light Mode (Lite Mode) Back

Light Mode is a feature that makes Bigger Icons and Text larger so older people can easily use cellphones. This feature has been around since MIUI 7 and people like it. But unfortunately Xiaomi removed this feature in a newer version.

And now Xiaomi finally adds the Lite mode in MIUI 10. The lite mode in MIUI 10 is not much different from the old one. The only change in light mode is, back in MIUI 7, you have to restart your phone to activate lite mode. But now, you don't need to restart.

13) New Themes, Sounds and Wallpapers on MIUI 10

MIUI 10 with a theme called Limitless. Although it's already available on MIUI 9, they add live icon animations on MIUI 10, which previously did not exist. Besides the theme there are several new wallpapers too.

There are also several new tones for Notification and system sounds. Xiaomi focuses more on this aspect. They add sounds for some actions such as deleting too. New sounds are inspired by natural sounds like the sound of droplets of Water, Sand etc.

Those are some of the newest and hidden features in MIUI 10 and how to use them. You must know the function of the latest features in MIUI 10 for the experience of using Xiaomi devices more fun.